This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Dubai jails Norwegian woman for illicit sex after she reports rape

An interior designer was given 16 months for sex outside marriage, drinking and perjury after she reported a rape. She is taking her case public.

Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, after she was sentenced 16 months in jail for having sex outside of marriage after she reported an alleged rape. Dalelv says she decided to make her case public in hopes of drawing attention to the risks of getting caught up in the Islamic-influenced legal system in the wealthy Gulf city-state. (Kamran Jebreili / The Associated Press)

By AMENA BAKRReuters

Sun., July 21, 2013

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES—A Norwegian interior designer who was jailed in this Gulf state for illicit sex after she reported being raped says she has no regrets about coming forward if her warning will protect others from a similar fate.

“I have to spread the word. ... After my sentence, we thought, ‘How can it get worse?’ ” Marte Deborah Dalelv told The Associated Press.

A court sentenced the 24-year-old last week to 16 months in prison for having sex outside marriage, drinking alcohol and perjury.

Her trial came about after Dalelv filed a complaint with police last March accusing a male colleague of raping her after she asked him to help her find her room. They and some other co-workers had had a few drinks earlier.

The news of her case has dominated the front pages in Norway and is raising questions about the judicial system in the Gulf state, which lures large numbers of expatriates and tourists with the promise of a Western lifestyle but still has strict but little known laws on sex and alcohol.

Norwegian diplomats secured Dalelv’s release on Friday and she is being allowed to remain at the Norwegian Seamen’s Centre — a Christian aid group — in central Dubai until a court hears her appeal in early September.

Dalelv said on the weekend that her alleged attacker was also jailed — he got a 13-month sentence for out-of-wedlock sex and alcohol consumption.

She said she did not regret reporting the assault: “The truth is the only thing that will help me get through this.”

In the United Arab Emirates, as in some other countries using Islamic law, a rape conviction can require either a confession or the testimony of four adult male witnesses.

According to the U.K.-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights, Dalelv’s is only the latest in a string of cases in which women who have reported being raped have ended up being jailed themselves.

A Briton who alleged she had been raped by three men was fined for drinking alcohol, the Centre said. An Emirati woman was sentenced to a year in prison after claiming to have been gang-raped. An Australian woman was sent to prison for 11 months after reporting a gang-rape to police.

Dubai promotes itself as a resort destination and a base for international business. Its hotels have licensed nightclubs, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol openly.

But rarely enforced laws actually make it illegal for residents to drink without a special licence, which few obtain. Possessing alcohol outside a licensed bar or being drunk in public are offences, even if the alcohol was bought legally. Such laws can be used to prosecute visitors who are involved in accidents or report crimes.

Typically, news organizations do not identity the names of alleged sexual assault victims, but in this instance Dalelv went public voluntarily to talk to media.

In an interview with Reuters, she said that by coming forward she hoped to alert other people not to expect Western standards of judicial protection.

“Dubai seems like a Western city, but what a lot of tourists don’t know for example that it’s not legal for them to drink alcohol,” she said.

Dalelv said she did not realize she would be treated as a criminal rather than as a victim until after she reported the assault and found herself being interrogated at a police station. An officer asked if she was making the rape report because she had not enjoyed sex.

“That is when I knew: I don’t think they are going to believe me at all,” she said.

She was held in prison for four days until contact was made with the Norwegian consulate and bail arranged. She still expected to be exonerated when her legal team presented its case. Her conviction came as a shock.

“I am very surprised because we had a DNA report, we had a medical report ... and still (the authorities) didn’t believe me.”

Dalelv told the Dubai-based English-language newspaper that she initially gave a statement to police that it was rape but later changed that, on the advice of her then boss, to say the sex had been consensual. Her boss assured her that approach would clear up the case more quickly and would avoid a trial.

“At that point, I didn’t want to go to court. I just wanted to go home, so I took that advice. And that’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made,” she told Gulf News.

But when the case did go to court she reverted to her original accusation and then was charged with perjury.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com